save senate house

Facebook petition to be handed in monday

2008-10-04T02:04:00.000-07:00

Peter Brett, one of the students who started the (hopefully) successful and high profile facebook campaign, has said they will be handing the petition in this monday. In his facebook letter to all in the group, he writes:-

Hi everyone,

So it looks like the key decisions are being taken right now. We will hand in our petition to the Senate House working group on Monday.

Senate House will, most probably, be either brought by UCL (ending SHL's life as a library meant to built to serve, and save money for all London universities), or have the bulk of its collections packed off to stores. (For more details see forthcoming London Student, also now online).

*** Please, sign the petition now if you haven't already. Get your friends to do it too. Write to your college head ***

Thanks!

Senate House Library opens up to facebook

2008-09-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

Senate House Library (where I work) has started a facebook page. Please join us, join us.......

Another interesting article on Senate House

2008-08-05T12:53:00.000-07:00

This seems similar to the article I mentioned previously, The Independent has provided an article on Senate house.

Lack of posts explained

2008-08-04T23:52:00.000-07:00

I have recently had some sad news and not been able to face this. Hopefully i will add more soon.

Camden New Journal article

2008-07-14T04:54:00.000-07:00

For those who are interested there was a recent article on Senate House in the Camden New Journal. The article can be found here

Peter Brett Interview

2008-07-07T03:01:00.000-07:00

I recently email Peter Brett, who along with Sol Gamsu, who set up the Facebook, ipetition and flickr acount to SAVE SENATE HOUSE.

Pete has responded to the Q & A. And here is his response.

1.'Pete and Sol. First question. Why did you set up the facebook page?

Well the first facebook group was a UCL-only one. The idea being, initially, to pressure each college individually into helping to make-up the new shortfall announced by the HEFCE review. I met Sol as a result of setting-up this group, and felt generally that the issue was likely to get more exposure on facebook than it would simply in student publications (like London Student, who did a very good piece on the Library in the Spring).

2. Why do you feel its important to keep this library open?

Because the basic facts of the situation are, unusually, very simple: if SHL closes, universities in London lose money and a library. Their own libraries have been shaped for decades around SH's, and the expense to each of them of replacing SHL's 'core' holdings would be massively higher than a proportional contribution to keeping the library open. Even if, then, you don't agree that knowledge and education matter enough by themselves to be protected anyway, there is no reason to support SHL's closure on principle. The problem, of course, is that persuading the colleges to pursue this collective interest is a very, very complicated matter.

3. What feedback have you been getting back from students?

Very positive. Most students who have contacted us had not heard anything about the HEFCE review, and were horrified when they found out. Another typical response has been that SHL is both more user-friendly, and has more books, than students' own university libraries.

4. Do you feel there's been much feedback from the library? Or is there ways the library could have helped your campaign to stop the closure?

Yes, we have had a good amount of helpful and supportive feedback from the library. In a personal capacity, a lot of library staff (like you, Les!) have also helped to publicise our campaign, and the library has also, very helpfully, allowed us to display our flyers to visitors.

5. Apart from facebook, ipetition and flickr, are there anything other media tools you are using in this campaign?

No, we are not. All of these, however, have been very useful. We hope to submit our petition to the Senate House working group in the Autumn.

6. Finally, what would you say to anybody (students or otherwise) about Senate house and what they could do to assist in your campaign?

This campaign really, really matters. Education in London could truly suffer, and for no good reason.

So ....

Sign the petition

Write to your college head - see the facebook page for suggestions.

And tell your friends!

Thanks for the interview Pete.

I'll try and update with more information as soon as possible.

Interesting article on Senate House

2008-07-02T08:01:00.000-07:00

Hi all, just a quick entry on the Senate House blog. I've just redisciovered this article from May 26th, in London Student newspaper. Anyway, just a brief post.

Save Senate House blog on Lisnews

2008-06-30T09:02:00.000-07:00

To try and increase the coverage of the save senate house blog, I contacted Lisnews to see if they would add the blog and facebook page,and they have added the blog to lisnews. I wanted to do this so as to get more world wide coverage, especially from the library world. Not bad going for four days on the blog. More news coming soon.

David Pearson discussing the HEFCE report

2008-06-26T05:18:00.000-07:00

For those interested, David Pearson, Director of University of London Research Library Services, discusses the HEFCE report in the Libraries newsletter . Its brief, but its something to worth checking.

Conflict of interest

2008-06-26T05:03:00.000-07:00

One thing I would like to point out, is I DO work at Senate House library. . This blog though is a personal blog. This is done in my own time and under my own duress. These are the opinion of myself, and are in no way a reflection of those of the management of Senate house. Obviously, I will not be able to discuss anything I am told about the possible closure or any details given to me by my managers. I am under contract.
But, as a concerned citizen I can still discuss Senate House.
My reasons for starting this blog is not to save my own job (well maybe slightly), but to give a view point and to stop the closure of a fantastic academic resource, which has many students, researchers and writers coming there. Obviously, if you feel this is rubbish, please inform me. This blog is an open forum for discussion.

A new blog with an importantant mission

2008-06-26T03:08:00.000-07:00

Hello world. I have written a blog previously, and in my last entry I discussed the possible closer of Senate House library. Already, the post has been linked to by lo-fi librarian. Lo-fi has taken the words from a facebook page two students have used, which is as followes:-

“Senate House Library, which just lost £1 million of funding in the recent HEFCE review, is now threatened with closure or takeover unless the University of London college heads decide in December 2008 to increase their current funding. It is vital, however, that the library not only stays open, but continues to be geared towards the needs of all UL students. The total amount the individual colleges of UL will have to invest in their own libraries’ basic holdings if this does not happen, is, clearly, going to be more than that required to keep a soon-to-be-newly refurbished SHL going. The problems of lack of space in the British Library caused by heavy student use, furthermore, will be made worse. This is irresponsible. Even if the University of London’s future is uncertain, a way must be found, at least, to keep the library open and available to all on an equal basis. If not, everyone will lose.”
Print and distribute the flier to let others know what’s going on.
Sign the online petition.
Join the Facebook group.
The HEFCE Review of special funding for research libraries: briefing document

Anyhow, I hope to talk with the students and support this blog, as I feel Senate house provides an excellent resource to world students, not just London.

So, SAVE SENATE HOUSE.